August 13th, 2010

The Year of the Whacko

Several months back, during the debate over health care, a woman held up a picture of Barack Obama with a little Hitler mustache on it as she asked a question of Barney Frank during a town hall meeting.  Congressman Frank asked her what planet she spent most of her time on and then said there was no more point talking to her than talking to his dining room table.  It was a beautiful moment in American politics.

Well, instead of living the rest of her life in shame and embarrassment, changing her hairstyle and refusing to talk to reporters, that woman, Rachel Brown, is now running for congress, challenging Frank in the Democratic primary.  She is a follower of Lyndon LaRouche, which means she believes that the world is controlled by the British empire and she has campaign signs which say “Destroy the British Empire, Impeach Barack Obama.”  And yes, she still compares Obama to Hitler.

The sad part is that she is not exceptional in American politics.  There is Alvin Greene in South Carolina, who is the actual Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, despite the fact that he is borderline retarded.  There is gun loving Sharron Angle, the Republican candidate for Senator from Nevada, who thinks the U.S. should not be a member of the U.N. because the U.N. isn’t mentioned in the Bible, white bearded Jim Rogers, the Democratic candidate for Oklahoma who refuses to give any information to the press.  Home town: not disclosed.  There is Basil Marceaux, who is running for Governor of Tennessee on a platform of stopping “traffic stop slavery” and banning flags with gold tassels on them, Linda McMahon, the Republican candidate for Senator (or Governor?) from Connecticut who is a professional wrestling promoter and, of  course,  Rand Paul in Kentucky, who is loopier than a half hour of figure skating but may well win his Senate race because, hey, it’s Kentucky and plenty of the voters are just as nuts as he is.

It’s bizarre that candidates like this can even get on the ballot, but I would like to see Alvin Greene win.  Not for the comedy, I just hate his opponent that much.